1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic mail, and more particularly, to automatically generated subject recommendations for email messages based on email message content.
2. Description of the Related Art
Email has become an integral part of business and personal life, becoming a primary means of communication for many. Users who rely on email are often inundated with sending and reading emails. An often overlooked but important part of an email is the subject heading. The subject heading is frequently used as a criteria for sorting and managing emails. Users who rely heavily on email frequently neglect writing appropriate subject headings for their emails in an effort to save time. This neglect can result in vague and/or misleading subject headings. Other times the subject heading is left blank because the user forgets or is unable to assign an appropriate subject heading.
While email clients have become extremely advanced in sorting and managing emails, it is often unable to help users locate specific emails of interest. This is due in part to blank, vague, or misleading subject headings of emails. Many times users remember important emails by the subjects or topics covered in the email. To this end, users may scan subject headings to find the appropriate email. However, subject headings of emails often do not reflect the email content. This can result in forcing the user to review the email, which can be time prohibitive. Additionally, blank or common subject headings that have been flagged as junk email can cause email filters to block a legitimate email.
Further email conversations, can initially start with accurate headings but users may disregard updating the subject heading as the exchange continues. After several replies, email conversation subject headings can drift wherein they no longer correctly describe the email contents. This drifting can make it difficult to automatically and manually organize and prioritize emails. It would be greatly beneficial if subject headings accurately indicated the content of the email. A solution to aid in the appropriate labeling of email subject headings is needed.